Purdue's Brian Lamb school boosted by $3M

By John Terhune/Journal & Courier--C-SPAN founder and Purdue alumnus Brian Lamb and Gov. Mitch Daniels laugh during an interview Thursday, September 29, 2011, in Fowler Hall on the campus of Purdue University. The interview was part of an event to celebrate the naming of the university's Brian Lamb School of Communication.

THE NEWS

The gift will be boosted by matching funds to a total $3 million to support students, faculty and academic programs.

THE DONATION

The gift for the school is divided into three categories.

? $750,000 to endow the C-SPAN Chair for a clinical professor who focuses on political communication and technologies and how they interact with civic engagement. The funds will be matched by Purdue.

? $250,000 to create undergraduate scholarships for Indiana students known as the Lamb Scholars. This money will be matched by Indiana Challenge Match.

? $1 million to be used by however Lamb School officials want. Already, activities that involve Project Impact and the Purdue Research Park-based C-SPAN Archives are being considered.

THE SCHOOL

The school was named after Lamb in 2011. Lamb, a 1963 Purdue alumnus and Lafayette native, founded C-SPAN - the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network - in 1977. The network's initial telecasts of the U.S. House of Representatives started in 1979.

Housed in the College of Liberal Arts, the school has about 1,000 undergraduate majors and 100 graduate students and 31 full-time faculty members. The six areas of graduate study and research are health communication; interpersonal communication; media, technology and society; organizational communication; public relations/issue management; and rhetorical studies. Steven R. Wilson is the interim department head.

QUOTABLE

"We knew from the beginning that securing funding to support the Lamb School's strategic vision would be key to its success," said Irwin Weiser, Justin S. Morrill Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. "This gift generously supports that goal."

- Staff reports

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Purdue's Brian Lamb school boosted by $3M

Part of the gift will be matched by university funds, raising its value to $3 million, officials announced today. The funding will go toward faculty, students and school programs.